Happy Leap Day

It is late, and I am headed to bed.  But I just couldn't let this day go by without some sort of post.  I mean, it will be another four years before I have the opportunity to post on February 29th, right?  So, short and sweet...Happy Leap Day!

Updates

Running

I figured since I just got out of my first ice bath, this would be a good place to start with a few updates.  I am training for my second half marathon and race day is May 6th.  All was going swimmingly, until suddenly it wasn't.  As in: I had a killer run on a Thursday, an enjoyable eight mile run on a Saturday, and then by the end of that day, it felt like I had a huge muscle cramp in my butt.  I actually thought that is what it was.  If you have ever had a muscle cramp, you know how it feels even days later (I know this first hand from the many calf cramps in the middle of the night that I had while pregnant with Cortlan).  There is some weird residual effect that you feel for a while.  So, that is what I thought it was, but I figured it would be worth taking a couple of days off.  I did.  And then when I ran on the following Wednesday and it started screaming at mile 2.5, I entertained the notion that what I had thought was a muscle cramp may have been a pulled hamstring.  Over the course of the next two weeks, I fluctuated between thinking I had a high hamstring pull and sciatica.  I still am not entirely sure what it was, but I finally, after over two full weeks of not running, was able to run again on Sunday.  I ran a measly 1.5 miles at a pace a full two minutes slower than my typical pace.  Tonight I did the same thing again....and then came home and sat in an ice bath.  I am ready for the big comeback.

Potty Training

The potty training went pretty well last summer for Everly.  We had quite the issue with getting #2 to happen on the potty, but once it did, we were golden.  Everly started the school year in underwear and has not yet (knock on wood) had an accident at school.  (She has had two at home, but that is another story.)  Anyway, she has still been wearing Pull-Ups to bed.  Until recently.  Check this out:

See those stickers?  On February 5th, Everly woke up dry.  She got a sticker.  She repeated her performance for eight more days, had one wet morning on the 14th, and then three more dry days.  On Friday, February 17th, we decided to put her to bed in underwear.  I have changed the sheets three times since then, but I am feeling pretty good about that going by the wayside pretty quickly.  Could my girl be fully potty trained, day and night, by her third birthday?  I am thinking yes!

Kindergarten

It is hard to believe, but last Friday, John and I took Cortlan to his Kindergarten registration. I think he was overwhelmed. He started off well enough, but as he got further into the introductions and people giving him attention, he withdrew more and more until he was buried in my leg and unwilling to leave my side for the evaluation portion of the morning. I walked him to the first station and sat nearby as he quietly, and then more confidently, answered the questions, sorted the shapes, built towers of colored blocks, cut out a dinosaur picture, and drew shapes and letters. Eventually, I was able to walk away, and in the end, he was fine. And he will be fine next year.  I am sure of it.  Now I guess the real question is: Will I be fine?

Playing with buttons

Monday was Presidents' Day and though many had off of work and school, our school had an in-service day.  The problem was that my kids' daycare/school has two in-service days per year and Presidents' Day is one of them.  With Grandma able to come to watch them at 11:30, that left us without childcare for the morning.  So I took a half day off of work. 

I rarely take off of work, and am always reluctant to do so, even when I am sick.  On days that we have students, I find it is typically more challenging to prepare for a substitute and recover from missing the day than it is to be there.  On in-service days, I don't want to miss the professional development and chance to interact with my colleagues (and go on a lunch date with my husband since dinner dates are a true rarity).  But I wholeheartedly enjoyed my half day off on Monday.

I think the best decision I made was to wake up early, before the kids woke.  I was showered and ready to go, drinking my coffee and peacefully reading my book (the third of The Hunger Game - love that series!), when my cuties groggily made their way into the living room.  We had a great breakfast and spent the next hour or so reading stories and playing on the floor.  At one point, I got the idea in my head to get out all of the buttons that I had collected over the years from shirts that come with extras attached.  I opened the bin that I always blindly shove them in and was amazed at how many I had.  I told the kids we were going to do an activity with the buttons, and you would have thought I told them they got to have a huge bowl of ice cream.  (Clearly, I do not do these types of things often...there is definitely something to be said for novelty.)

The first part of the "activity" was simply taking all of the buttons out of the bags.  We decided to sort them in muffin tins into four piles...a huge, a teeny-tiny, a medium-big, and a medium-small pile.  The kids had a great time with this, and were quite good at discerning which pile the buttons should go in.  I was impressed with the sorting of two medium piles, by Everly, in particular.  In the end only two buttons needed to be switched, and the kids were able to figure that out by themselves. 

Cortlan then had the idea to sort them by color, as well.  They had to make the decisions about what buttons should go together to make three different colored piles of each size...interesting considering Cort's color blindness. 

Along the way, we counted, compared, and discussed our reasoning.  Finally, Cortlan thought it would be a great idea to line up the buttons and measure them with my measuring tape.  We measured each pile, wrote down the measurements, and then put the piles together, ultimately measuring a long line of buttons. 

 As a grand finale, we counted all of the buttons - there were seventy total.

Why am I writing about this?  Well, first, I have to say I was kind of proud of myself for actually coming up with an educational activity that could be adapted for each of my kids and that they thought was fun...despite the fact that I am a teacher, early childhood stuff is quite out of the box for me.  Second, I was amazed at how much my kids love to learn and explore in a structured environent.  They love imaginative play and I love to see what they can come up with on their own, but with just a little bit of guidance, they really did a great deal of learning through playing with buttons.  Third, while sitting with my kids at the counter, I experienced that rare Kairos time that I so cherish...my kids and I talked and laughed and played with buttons for an hour; time slipped away and yet stood still and I couldn't help but thinking of how I would love to hold onto the feeling and the moment forever.

Yes, taking the half day off was well worth it....and there is something to be said for novelty.

If I were you

So we were standing at the bagging area of the grocery store the other day and Cortlan said to me, "If I were you, I would arrange the refrigerator by food groups."

"If you were me, huh?"

"Yes, I would arrange all the food by food groups."

The checkout lady chuckled.

"If you notice," I said, "it kind of is arranged by food groups.  The vegetables are in the drawers on the bottom, the cheese is in the drawer on the top, the meat is usually on the bottom shelf..."

And do you know what he said?  "Yes, but if I were you, I would do a better job."

Have at it, my son.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love Valentine's Day for the sentiment.  I don't love Valentine's Day in the way that it seems like a fabricated holiday that basically seems like a marketing ploy to get us to spend money.  I have said it before: I am not good at giving gifts.  I absolutely loved (and was completely surprised by) the roses and chocolate that John brought to my classroom.  But I hope I am not considered a bad mom or wife because I didn't buy any Valentine's gifts this year.  In fact, my entire VDay shopping consisted of a bag of Hershey Kisses, two cards (one for John from me, and one for John from the kids), and Valentine's Cards for the kids to pass out at school.  Instead, I tried to do special things to celebrate, like making our second annual Valentine's Day breakfast on Sunday, which consisted of pink, heart-shaped pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream:

So excited!

I think he liked them!

And making brownies with the kids, which we cut out with heart -shaped cookie cutters for their teachers.  And on Tuesday, a special dinner of heart-shaped italian four-cheese raviolis with a homemade pink alfredo and shrimp sauce.

Don't be too impressed - it took less than 10 minutes to make this meal once the water was boiling.  It does look pretty, though, doesn't it?

For dessert?  A Hershey Kiss...and lots of love.  But I hope that my family feels that all year round.



And speaking of food

Do you know what fascinates me?  How my kids eat the food on their plates in the exact opposite order of each other.  I noticed it quite a while ago and have never mentioned it to them, but they are so consistant it is amazing.  For example, on Saturday, we had mini meatloaves, mashed potatoes, and corn.  The meat was the first thing gone from Cort's plate and the corn was the first thing gone from Ev's.  The potatoes were next for each of them, leaving the meat for Ev to eat last and the corn for Cortlan.  Sunday morning, we had our Valentine's Day breakfast of pink heart-shaped pancakes, strawberries and whipped cream.  Everly immediately ate all of her pancakes, leaving just strawberries on her plate.  Cortlan gobbled up all of his strawberries first, leaving only pancakes.  They do this all the time...at nearly every meal. And they never even notice and certainly don't do it on purpose.  Weird.

Food Thinking

If there is something in your life that you would rather be doing than most other things and while you are doing it, you love it and time disappears, is that considered a passion?  Well, perhaps I have found one, finally.  I love what I do...teaching, running, parenting, etc.,...but for some reason, I have been completely engrossed in recipe blogging lately.  I honestly don't know why.  I am no chef...at all.  Throw me in a kitchen with random ingredients and no recipe and I am clueless.  I don't have half of the supplies that you would need to be considered a "real" cook.  Double boiler?  I am lucky I know what it is.  My knives?  I got the whole set for $45 on Black Friday.

But for some reason, I am finding myself constantly thinking about writing recipes, taking pictures of food, what I can do to get more people to notice the blog and our facebook page.  Perhaps what has me going so full force with this endeavor is that it presents me with a creative outlet that is simultaneously productive.  I need a creative outlet and I need to be productive.  My family has enjoyed the newfound interest I have had in making a variety of meals.  I have found that I am WAY better at meal planning and crock pot using than ever before.  I make fewer trips to the grocery store.  And I am creating something that I will always be able to use...and that others can use, too.

I also love that I am not doing this alone and have found that co-authoring the blog with my friend, Kelly, has been a wonderful experience and very motivating and satisfying....not to mention that it means double the delicious recipes.  (Tonight, for example, I am making one of her recipes that we haven't yet shared on the blog - taco cupcakes - and I can't wait!)  I have tried things that I would have never tried if Kelly weren't there to encourage me and to bounce ideas off of, and, without speaking for her, I think that goes both ways.  I am not a risk taker and I often second guess myself, something that doesn't happen nearly as much when working as part of a team.  For example, we may have a lead on hosting a giveaway on our blog, something that I doubt I would have considered pursuing by myself.

I am a teacher, wife, and a mom, first and foremost, but there is something that keeps me pushing forward with this blogging thing.  I really enjoy it.  Who knows what will come of it, if anything, but in the worst case scenario, I have a great collection of recipes.  The best case scenario?  Hmmmmm...perhaps the blog goes viral, sponsors start knocking on our doors showering us with money and gifts, advertisers pay us top dollar, and we get our own book deal.  Ok, maybe not. 

Who knows how long this passion will last, but I will take advantage while I can.  And if the only thing that writing this blog does is to help me to enjoy cooking, something that has always been a chore to me, then it is well worth the time I spend thinking about it!

http://www.busymomsrecipebox.blogspot.com/
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The weekend recap

This past weekend began with a trip to the store to buy a present for a classmate of Cortlan's.  We picked out the gift and went home to have a nice snack, as the party didn't start until 6:00 and we are all used to eating by then.  We wrapped the gift, made and decorated cards, and were just about to get coats on when I grabbed the invite so that I could complete the included waiver.  I figured I would get it done ahead of time, so that I wouldn't have to deal with it when we got to the party.  Well, as it turns out, I was way ahead of the game, for as I completed the waiver, I realized that February 3rd was not the date of the party, but rather the RSVP date.  Oops.  At least the present is bought and wrapped and we didn't have anything on the schedule for next Friday.

After a nice 8 mile run Saturday morning, we all went to the outlet mall on a hunt for four pairs of new shoes.  It is nice to have two walking kids and no strollers, and also kind of entertaining.  As Everly and I walked down the sidewalk at one point, her legs began to seemingly go everywhere at once.  I looked at her quizzically and she responded by saying, matter-of-factly, "I turned on my crazy legs.  I have a button right here."  She pointed to her hip, as though everyone has a crazy legs button.  So, I turned my crazy legs on, too, and we crazy-legged it down the sidewalk.  After a little while, I had to ask if there was an off button, and fortunately, there was.

I wish I had many exciting stories to tell and pictures to share, but this was one of those weekends that just went by all too quickly without much to show for it.  I cooked and cleaned and did more cooking and more cleaning, and somehow I still don't have a clean house and the food is just about all gone.  I cut Cortlan's and John's hair.  I taught Cortlan how to play Mancala.  (He caught on surprisingly quickly.)  I read many stories to the kids.  I watched some of the Superbowl while grading papers.  I laughed out loud at the M&Ms commercial.

Yep, just another weekend. 
I could sure use a snow day and a good book.

On the plus side

I have had an emotional and pretty crappy few days.  But if I look closely, it wasn't all bad...

• After spending 29 hours in the high school auditorium chaperoning/sponsoring the Actors' Society's 29 Hour Show, I am happy to say that our organization raised $1000 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
• John brought the kids to visit for a while during my time at the school.  We played a fun game of hide and seek in the auditorium, and when on a quick trip to print scripts in my room, they drew me a picture that was the highlight of my Monday morning, when I found it was still there.

To the left, a house in outer space...see the helmets on the people?  the stars?  To the right, Everly's rendition of a waterfall.

• Despite the time consumed by the function, I managed to get my miles in over the weekend, put together a GeoTrax train track with the kids that took over the entire living room floor, and most of the laundry and grocery shopping still got done.
• I didn't get my six miles in on Monday, but at least I got four.
• For the first time in months, I had some time to think.  Granted, in that time of thinking and self-reflection, I realized some things about myself that I don't like so much, but at least I got to think and figure some things out, and now I know what I need to work on.
• I remembered that my happiness doesn't come from anywhere but within me and that I can't expect others to make me happy.  But chasing the kids on their bikes on a sixty degree January day certainly does make it a bit easier to find that happiness.